Abstract

The ocean color and temperature scanner (OCTS) collected global
ocean color data from November 1996 to June 1997. Analyses of OCTS
imagery indicate three features that impair scientific research
uses: (1) band misalignments, (2) image striping, and
(3) image noise. These are due to (1) band offsets in the
sensor design, (2) detector radiometric response variability, and
(3) primarily cloud contamination, respectively. Methods are
analyzed to ameliorate the effects of each that facilitate use of OCTS
ocean color data for quantitative scientific analyses.

Figures (4)

Geometrical overview of the band offset design of the
OCTS. This illustrates a single scan containing 10 detectors
aligned along track and 2222 pixels aligned across track. Spectral
bands are offset from one another in the focal plane, but successive
observations (t0, t1, etc.)
produce near overlap.

Image noise in the OCTS is apparent in this 10 April 1997
image of chlorophyll near Florida. The noise appears as speckles
(top), which are anomalous high-chlorophyll observations in a field
of generally low chlorophyll. These features are commonly
associated with clouds. Reduction in this noise (bottom) is
achieved by multistep cloud filtering methods. The same chlorophyll
scaling as in Fig. 3 is used.